DA: Upper Perkiomen High School teacher fails to report rape of student

PENNSBURG — An Upper Perkiomen High School health teacher was arrested Thursday for allegedly failing to report the rape of one of his students despite the fact that teachers are among those mandated by law to report child abuse to law enforcement.

Frank R. Mercon, 40, of 309 Jasmine Court, Zieglersville, who was also the baseball coach at Upper Perkiomen High School in the spring of 2012, was charged by the Montgomery County District Attorney’s office Thursday morning and released on $10,000 unsecured bail pending a preliminary hearing before District Judge Catherine Hummel Fried scheduled for Oct. 19 at 3 p.m.

Conditions of Mercon’s bail include that he is prohibited from having contact with the victim or the victim’s best friend, who was aware the victim told Mercon of the rape.

Authorities allege a 17-year-old female student of Mercon’s disclosed to him in a note in the fall of 2010 that she had been raped on the campus of Penn State Berks in the fall of 2009. Mercon, authorities allege in court documents, told the girl “There was probably nothing that we could do since it was over a year ago and there was no physical evidence.”

Contacted for comment Thursday, Upper Perkiomen Superintendent Elizabeth Hammond Yonson referred a reporter to a statement posted on the district’s website, which indicates the district was cooperating with the district attorney’s office for the past two months regarding the “failure to meet mandated reporting” incident involving Mercon. In the statement and in a phone interview Yonson indicated the district “does not comment on matters involving specific employees or students at the allegation stage.”

Asked whether Mercon was suspended pending the outcome of the upcoming court action, Yonson stated “He is teaching, today he is not, obviously. The bottom line is this is at the allegation stage.”

In the statement posted on the district’s website, Yonson said the safety of students “is our number one concern. The District will do everything in its power to cooperate with this investigation and ensure the proper reporting of child abuse by its employees.”

Yonson indicated in the statement that anyone with questions or concerns may contact her office at 215-541-2459. She also noted that the district “has provided comprehensive in-service of professional staff and continue to train our employees to take very seriously their obligations to report child abuse of which they become aware.”

Court documents make reference to a statement from Upper Perkiomen High School Principal William Shirk, who confirmed Mercon was among faculty who received training on mandated reporting in the fall of 2011. In the spring of 2012, Mercon and the victim allegedly burned the note the victim gave him, which contained the information about the rape, in the high school science lab. Authorities note they burned the note before the girl graduated from the high school.

According to court documents, the investigation into Mercon’s alleged failure to report the rape started in Berks County Detectives after the victim reported the rape and explained she had told her health and physical education teacher about the incident. Berks County Detectives turned the case regarding Mercon over to Montgomery County authorities.

In August 2012, the Montgomery County Detectives initiated their investigation. The victim told authorities she went to Mercon in the fall of 2010 when she was 17 and told him of the rape. “The victim said that she didn’t want to say it out loud, so she wrote a note about the sexual assault and gave it to him at that time,” according to the court documents. The victim’s best friend witnessed her give the note to Mercon.

Investigators note in court documents that Shirk, the high school principal, learned of the “situation involving Frank R. Mercon” from Berks County Detectives and then spoke with Mercon over the phone. During their conversation, Mercon “admitted to Dr. Shirk that he had received the note from the victim in which she indicates she was date raped and he kept the note until it was burned at the end of school when the victim graduated.”

According Rep. Kate Harper, R-Montgomery, chairwoman of the House Children and Youth Committee, “Schools are the largest source of reports of suspected child abuse, accounting for 6,930 (28.4 percent) of the 24,378 reports filed in 2011 said a recently adopted state law aims to improve recognition and reporting of suspected child abuse by teachers and other school employees.”

Harper issued a press release Thursday after hearing news of the charges against Mercon.

Harper acknowledged new legislation, Act 126 of 2012, which will go into effect in early December. It “requires school entities and their independent contractors to provide mandatory training about child abuse recognition and reporting to their employees who have direct contact with students,” according to the press release.

“Teachers and other school personnel are mandated to report suspected child abuse. We have a duty to ensure they have the training and information they need to meet that responsibility, and we need to ensure they take that responsibility very seriously,” Harper said. “Any incidence of child abuse is tragic, but the failure to recognize the abuse and report it can be disastrous for the victim.”

Under the new law, employees will be required to receive at least three hours of training every five years, and that training must address specific topics, including recognition of the signs of abuse and sexual misconduct and the reporting requirements for suspected abuse or sexual misconduct.